1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable storage device, and particularly to a USB portable disk drive (Handy Drive) without a separated covering.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As computer technology advances, there is a trend to develop smaller and portable storage devices. Now, various portable storage devices, such as a portable disk drive, are common in the market, and most of them are connected to computers via universal serial bus (USB) interfaces.
FIG. 1 is a perspective diagram of a conventional USB portable disk drive 500. The drive 500 comprises a main body 510 having a storage portion, such as a flash memory, and a covering 520 separated form the main body for covering a USB terminal 515. In addition, the main body 510 further comprises an indicator light 530, such as a light-emitting diode (LED), for showing the operating status of the portable disk drive 500. Before using the USB portable disk drive 500, the user has to remove the covering 520 and plug the USB terminal 515 into a USB socket of the computer. When data is accessed and transmitted between the drive 500 and computer, the indicator light 530 will be turned on so as to emit light and show the USB portable disk drive 500 is at a status of being used. When finishing the use of the drive 500, the user can cover the USB terminal 515 with the covering 520 so as to protect the USB terminal 515 and keep it from dust. In addition, a hanging portion (not shown), such as a hooking ring or a hanging hole, can be installed on the main body 510 or the covering 520 so that the user can hang the drive 500 on the neck and carry it with him or her.
However, the conventional USB portable disk drive 500 has the following drawbacks when it is being used and carried.
First, the conventional USB portable disk drive 500 has a separated covering 520 for covering the USB terminal 515. When the user removes the covering 520 and uses the USB portable disk drive 500, he or she usually lays the covering 520 aside. Therefore, the user tends to lose the covering 520 for the carelessness especially when the USB portable disk drive 500 is repeatedly plugged into the computer for data accessing and taken out from the computer. Losing the covering 520 not only makes it impossible to keep the USB terminal 515 from the dust, but also damages the integrity of the external shape of the USB portable disk drive 500.
Furthermore, the indicator light 530 of the conventional USB portable disk drive 500 is a small LED, and therefore, no matter which position the LED is situated at, the light of the indicator light 530 cannot be easily identified from various angles. Particularly, when the computer system has various peripheral devices, the light emitted by the indicator light 530 will be affected by the surroundings or the other peripheral devices and cannot be easily identified. Consequently, the user tends to misjudge that the data accessing of the USB portable disk drive 500 is finished and then takes out the drive 500 when the drive 500 is still performing the data accessing so that the data accessing will be abnormally interrupted and the data may be damaged.